Chinese art is blowing up isn’t it? Specializing in updating traditional Chinese technique with a modern approach these stunning paintings done in slices on single panes of glass and then re-assembled to create striking three-dimensional piece.

What I love about these images is how constrained the technique is. Doing something like this can easily venture into gimmick and instead of going that route he lets the subject matter tell it’s own story without creating an overly-dramatic voice. Some of the figures ebb and flow into transparency themselves creating a ghost-like appearance that is both striking and mystifying.

Xia Xiaowan currently lives in Beijing, China and is a professor of Stagecraft at the Central academy of Drama. He graduated from the Chinese Central Academy of Fine Arts in 1982 and has since exhibited around the world with no shows in the US (yet…*nudge nudge*)